Amber Dhara Articles - NO COMMENTS - Page 2

While Sony's weekday prime time has had no big success in the last one year and none of its properties got thumbs up from viewers, the channel's weekend band has however been delivering good numbers, thanks to Indian Idol, Boogie Woogie, CID and Comedy Circus. In fact, it is the weekend programming that has helped Sony get somewhat decent share of group rating points (GRPs) among GE channels. Over the last five months Indian Idol 3 has been Sony's channel driver show. Besides being sampled by more than 77 million viewers, the show boosted the TRPs of Sony's other weekend properties, so much so that it propelled Sony to number 1 spot on weekends with a share of 28 per cent against 27 per cent each of Star Plus and Zee. Sony's GRPs have also had a decent rise from 105 in April to 150 in August.

But what continues to be Sony's biggest worry is its weekday prime time fiction band. "We haven't had big success on weekdays for some time. We lost our way somewhere and the premise of some of the shows was also not right. But we have always tried our best to be different from our competitors. Instead of copying others we believe in setting new trends in programming. Some of our shows have not worked for us but if we believe in a show and see potential in it we give it a longer lease of life. Virrudh is not showing big numbers yet we believe that it has the potential to live up to our expectations," says Sony's executive vice-president and business head Albert Almeida, adding, "Being innovative and different from others has been our core strength and our new show AmberDhara is yet another example of Sony setting new trends in programming."

Four years ago it was Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, a story of an underdog ugly duckling who overcomes her shortcomings, obstacles and challenges in her journey to find her true love, which stood out in the clutter of saas-bahu family dramas and delivered eyeballs for Sony. The scene has not changed even now with innumerable family dramas still calling the shots on Star Plus and Zee. AmberDhara which is the story of conjoined twins and a celebration of human spirit against all odds comes with the same promise of being a potential clutter-breaker show. "It is an unique concept which has the potential to break new frontier in the fiction genre on Indian television. It is fresh, youthful, entertaining and has the slice of life," says Almeida.

Being distinctive and different, according to Sanjay Upadhyay, Sony's creative head and vice-president, new programming development, does not mean Sony is not a mass channel. "Our primary audience is the masses, especially women, who constitute big chunk of viewers. While being different, our endeavour is to tell stories of human and emotional elements that easily connect with mass eyeballs," says Upadhyay. In Upadhyay's view there is no taking away from the fact that women protagonists rule the roost on television. "So our shows too will have women as protagonists. But our protagonists will have enough space to move around and assert themselves unlike in other shows where they are either 'devis' or doormats," he adds.

At the press conference of Ambar Dhara a few days ago most of the show's cast was present. But the two protagonists, who play conjoined twins, were conspicuous by their absence. At the show's launch party last night, the media was told that the true identity of the two girls will be revealed. The duo did show up at the party but they left as quickly as they came without any media interaction. A telephonic interview with the two girls was promised yesterday to a few select scribes but nothing really came off it as the duo refused to talk anything about their real identity.

"I am Amber," said the girl who plays the character but refused to reveal her real name. "And I am Dhara," said the other girl who plays the character of a demure and serious sister in the serial that is essentially an underdogto-achiever story of two conjoined twins. In real life the girl who plays Amber said she is absolutely like Amber. "That is why I was selected to play the role," she said. Ditto with Dhara. But who are Amber and Dhara? Both are middle class girls who have done their graduation and were keen on pursuing a career in acting. Where are they from? "They are from Panchgani," said producer Vikas Seth. Well, Panchgani is where the story begins before it moves to Mumbai.

Vikas said the two girls were selected to play conjoined twins after more than 3000 girls were auditioned. That was some time in January and since then they have been living a secluded life, away from family and friends. "They have undergone training for eight months to understand and imbibe the story and characters. They have lived like Amber and Dhara and have enjoyed being part of the project," said Vikas. The two girls also maintain that they have had no problem living like conjoined twins. "It was bit difficult in the beginning but we had to live away from our families and friends because we are quite focused on our roles. We are living like sisters and we have had the best of time," the duo said.

Are they frustrated and wanting to get out of the forced confinement? "No, we are not frustrated and neither are we desperate to meet our families and friends. We are quite happy here and we don't mind living like this as long as we are required to. We are giving our 100 per cent to Amber Dhara and our expectations from the show are also huge," they said. But when will their true identities be revealed? "Very soon they will be living like normal people and will be accessible to the media," said Vikas .

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There was a time when a serial would be known by its director's name. Today directors are non-entities with producers driving the content.
True. Earlier directors had a vision, but with the advent of dailies they had nothing to contribute. In a daily there's little time to think and create. As I said, you may have planned it a certain way for four episodes but the EPs have decided 20 more episodes that have nothing to do with what you have conceived.

Now that you are on the other side of the board, has your opinion changed?
Today, the EPs of the channels draw the outlay of the show and are in charge of the creatives, right from the conceptualisation. My whole idea is to bring to the table my experiences of being on the creative side, first as a director and then as a senior creative director with BAG Films. This will help me in sourcing right kind of creative minds and connecting with them which is why I have a broadbased interaction with the producers. It is not 'my way or high way'. I also give and receive feedback with the directors of the shows who are virtually forgotten.

Amber Dhara is the first serial to roll out after you joined. Didn't you think it was risky to air a show about conjoined twins at primetime?
The risk was in the mind when we heard the idea. Soon, we realised it was a story of triumph and though there was this little mental block about viewers accepting conjoined twins, we knew we had a winner in our hands. We were right as the girls have endeared themselves to the viewers and opened up new markets for Sony. Rajasthan, Punjab and Indore that earlier were not responding to us have started tuning in.